Posts by Dave 126 10672 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
I spent real money Daikatana when I was a student, partly because of the Romero name, partly because it ran on NT 4.0. Silly me. I gave up after the second chapter, obviously my time spent playing Goldeneye on the N64 had taught me nothing about the idiocy of non-player allies.
At least Carmack tried something different with Rage, and didn't just use some off-the-shelf game engine - even though reviews suggest it didn't live up to its promise.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/performance-preview-the-moto-x-sports-a-great-gpu-respectable-cpu/
"I'll echo what we said in our hands-on with the Moto X: this is a fine phone, but we're ultimately left wondering what the fuss is about. It's plenty fast, if not exceptionally so. It has a few neat software tweaks, but nothing that would prompt us to throw our Galaxies or Nexuses in the trash. It starts at a same-old-same-old $199 on-contract price just like most flagship Android phones. Customizable backs are all well and good, but if that's your phone's killer feature, you might need to think of some more ideas."
That's kind of the idea. Screen was chosen for better battery life (AMOLED can light up pixels selectively, so checking notifications uses less power), CPU ditto - but apparently is fast enough to let the phone run smoothly.
I think the idea is that Moto are trying to tightly wed the hardware to their version of Android and sell it people who want things to 'just work', as opposed to the spec-hungry modding crowd.
This is a phone with mid-range components at a high-end price. However, the gist seems to be that the screen and processor have been chosen for better battery life. There are power-saving tricks: only part of the AMOLED screen is lit up to show notifications, for example.
It's an attempt to make a 'one size fits all' Android phone, suitable for the sort of people whop wold have previously bought an iPhone.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/1/4578890/this-is-the-moto-x
>Tomshardware, for example is often covered with them [synthetic benchmarks]
Yeah, But Tom's put their synthetic benchmarks in context, and always alongside 'real-world' tasks.... so if they are testing Workstation GPUs, for example, they run tasks in a variety of CAD and transcoding applications. If they are testing CPUs, they might run standard tasks in Photoshop and other productivity apps. Gaming hardware is tested on popular titles such as Crysis and Skyrim, since different games tax CPUs and GPUs differently. Seems reasonable.
AC's comments might seem harsh for your average stoner carrying a Wishbone Ash album, but these idiots were metal thieves carrying a machete - of the type that think nothing of causing costly damage and inconvenience for a few dollars worth of copper:
>Reuben Miller, the owner of nearby Aacme Transmissions, said he confronted the man near the business on Mount View Lane shortly after noon because he recognized him from surveillance footage taken Sunday.
In that footage, Miller said, the man was allegedly seen cutting cords from a washer and dryer outside the business and leaving with them.
"I said, 'You are stealing my stuff,'" Miller said. "He said, 'I don't have time for you. I'm going to the hospital,' and pulled out a machette."
Miller said he punched the man, who also had a hatchet, once or twice. The man eventually continued up Mount View Lane toward Nevada, he said.
>Similarly, Android 4.3 introduces support for Bluetooth Smart Ready – aka the Low Energy portion of the Bluetooth 4.0 spec – but only on supported devices, which so far include the Nexus 4 and the new Nexus 7 only.
According to the wikipedia Bluetooth entry, some Samsung devices such as the Note 2 have Bluetooth LE hardware, so presumably Samsung will support it their next software update - especially if they plan to release a 'smartwatch'. Ditto some Nokia phones and Microsoft tablets. The previous lack of BLE in Android might be why some of the existing smartwatches (such as those from Casio G-Shock and Citizen) currently only support iDevices.
That happened to my new camera last weekend- it was too hot to leave it in direct sunlight, so I placed it under my jacket on the opposite bench. A beer later, and my friend picked up my jacket to hand it to me and the camera hit the floor... fortunately, it still works, and I can't find a dent or scratch on it. The official case for it is far too pricey, so and being an unusual size generic pouches are too small for it.... so I'll have a rummage amongst the 35mm cameras in a charity shop and buy one for its pouch!
Old Nexus 7 took some XDA malarkey to have it read memory sticks, but worked with keyboards etc. Old Nexus 4 was made by LG and didn't have USB OTG in any way. Some AMA on Reddit suggests that the new Nexus 7 has OTG - at least in hardware- since it appears to be supplying power to connected devices.
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/30434/slimport-summit-2013-coverage-what-is-slimport-/index.html
for what looks like a reasonable covering of Slimport basics...
Also,
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/google-announces-new-chrome-device-to-get-video-streams-to-your-tv/
is a $35 device that allows you to stream video over WiFi from a avariety of platforms.
>Unobtainium Glass
"Man-made sapphire could replace Gorilla Glass as the material of choice for scratch-and-crack-resistant mobile phone screens in the near future, according to a recent speculative piece from MIT Technology Review.
"Having had a little wander around the relevant places and a few chats with people who would know, I'd say that it's actually not just possible but highly likely. "
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/02/gorilla_glass_ipads/
>Does stuff I do in Android seamlessly integrate into the Ubuntu side?
Probably yes, seeing as such techniques have been used for some time on virtual machines. If you download VMWare Player (free as in beer) for example, you will be given the option to download the VMWare 'Helper' tools, which allow you to do things such as copy-paste between windows, regardless of whether said windows are programs running on the Host OS or the Guest OS.
I do have a little sympathy for your cynicism- this proposed Ubuntu setup requires the user to carry a micoHDMI or USB MHL cable, plus Bluetooth mouse and keyboard- which are bulkier than the actual phone. If you're resigned to carrying those odds and sods, you might as well carry a separate Linux machine too- perhaps one of those little 'inline' jobbies the size of a USB stick.... that way you can still make phone calls whilst editing your spreadsheets.
There was a recent Reg article about sapphire production methods falling in cost (just as silicon wafers for semiconductors have done). Only today I saw some quartz watches for sale with sapphire crystals (the see through bit above the watch face) for £125, so much materials are no longer the preserve of higher-end man jewellery.
>Anyway, the last thing I want is a Ubuntu phone (or a Unity desktop), so I'm not giving them a penny
I'm no Linux expert, but would have assumed that a phone that can run Linux could be tweaked to run other distros fairly easily.
Besides Unity (and arguably Android) there any other small-screen touch-orientated Linux desktop environments being developed at the moment (such as might have fallen out of Nokia)?
Check the LeapMotion Linux forums, Thad!
"Hey guys, I'm really sorry about . I've asked our guys to put our link back up [ to the beta Linux drivers] on the developer portal as soon as possible. It should include the latest software daemon package as well as a SDK. Unfortunately; there is no Airspace support for Linux at this time."
-DavidH Co-Founder & CTO
https://forums.leapmotion.com/showthread.php?2670-No-drivers
>Tactile feedback, and the way the inertia of physical peripherals helps keep your hand steady, count for more than you realise when you’re trying to be precise.
Other online reviews of the Leap make much the same point as Mr Smith. Maybe Leap have missed a trick - rather than just software developers, perhaps they need hardware partners, in the same way that a Wii controller can be fitted into a dumb 'steering wheel' or 'fishing rod' accessory. Existing 'digital clay' systems use an expensive articulated arm to provide XYZ + vector user input, and haptic feedback.
Inexpensive hardware accessories could make the Leap pretty handy... just add a glass sheet and pen to make it an ersatz digitiser, for example.
My old man's only reason for wanting a smartphone was for maps... now that Google, rather than improve the 'offline maps' feature it only introduced a few versions back, has decided to hide it instead (type in 'okay maps'... WTF?) a Nokia Windows Phone would have been a better choice for him than Android- especially since he spends time driving in Europe.
As it is, he's gone back to his old Nokia candybar- he never got on with 'swiping' to answer a phone call on his Android, or the relatively short battery life. I dare-say he would find any smartphone just as confusing and infuriating, though. Doesn't help that the fag-lighter is his Transit is buggered.
I used to know where I was with with Nokia phone names... 3xxx was lower end, students and the like, 6xxx was business, 8xxx were small and desirable, 9xxx were things like the Communicator with a qwerty keyboard.... but that was ten years ago, so I can't help you now! : D
Actually, the Daily Mail printed pictures of an 11 year old girl in her bikini:
[Of Chris Morris' Brass Eye special "Paedogeddon!":] Around 3,000 complaints were received and politicians spoke out against Morris.[4] Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" but later admitted she had not seen it, and David Blunkett said he was "dismayed" by it. He also had not seen the episode, because he is blind.[5] Tessa Jowell, after watching,[6] asked the Independent Television Commission to reinstate censorship to ban similar programmes.[7] There was also a tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue.
The Daily Star decried Morris and the show, placing the story next to a separate article about the 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now" and using the words "looking chest swell".[8][9] The Daily Mail pictured Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick".[9][10]
- from Wikipedia, but I remember Private Eye at the time drawing attention to the Daily Mail's hypocrisy.
There are more Windows Phone devices to be seen amongst the general public (okay, my local's beer garden) than the comments sections of The Reg would suggest. Of the other drinkers, some have still have trusty dumbphones, some have have Androids, some have had iPhones but now use Android devices, some are Apple loyalists... they all seem happy enough, and it seems a lot of people aren't too fussed about the OS.
Other than the immature ecosystem and a distrust of MS (I know that one), why does WinPho get so much abuse?
>This statement would only be true if you define "some" as "gamers" because the only reason to dual boot, which for anybody who does it regularly is extremely annoying, is to get the full 3D treatment
3D CAD, modelling and simulation software is better represented on Windows than OSX.
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